Daytona State moves toward 4-year nursing degree

Thursday

Jan 17, 2013 at 3:30 PMJan 17, 2013 at 11:14 PM

After years of discussion, the Daytona State College board of trustees is moving toward a bachelor of science degree in nursing.

DAYTONA BEACH — Area nurses may soon have another option on where to continue their college education. The Daytona State College board of trustees at Thursday's meeting unanimously approved the staff's recommendation to add a four-year nursing program starting in January 2014. A letter seeking support for a bachelor of science in nursing degree will be sent Friday to the Florida College System, which would seek input over the next 100 days including from other colleges and universities, according to Mike Vitale, Daytona State's senior vice president of academic affairs. The proposal would eventually go to the state Board of Education for approval. Review and approval would also be needed by the accrediting agency, which is the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools, college officials said. The degree will be designed as a completion program for associate degree nursing graduates who have a Florida registered nursing license and as a seamless pathway from the associate nursing degree program for students in Volusia and Flagler counties. The new program, college officials said, is intended to meet the workforce needs in the area and a national initiative for more nurses to have bachelor's degrees. Daytona State would start with 50 students next spring; 140 in 2014-15; and 180 in 2015-16. The program would begin on the Daytona Beach campus and may expand to other campuses "as the need warrants," a college spokeswoman said. "We did our due diligence on this program and studied it very hard," said board chairman Dwight Lewis. Lewis and other board members said the college, which has discussed the issue for years, did not rush to approval and met several times with area universities that offer a similar degree. Bethune-Cookman University, under its previous administration, had concerns but Interim President Edison Jackson supports Daytona State College and said its program won't impact enrollment in B-CU's program. Administrators at the University of Central Florida have said UCF can't support Daytona State and are "not certain that the demand exists." Board trustee Lloyd Freckleton said he feels, based on input from various groups and area hospitals, that "the timing is right now for us to move ahead. "I can understand there may be others who would feel we are stepping on their turf however that is what makes this country great – capitalism and competition," Freckleton said. Board trustee Forough Hosseini, who previously had concerns, said the college has "to be cognizant of what this community needs." "We have been told repeatedly they need nursing bachelor degrees," Hosseini said. Last August, the board approved having an outside firm look at a previous study conducted by the college. Mid-Florida Marketing & Research Inc. found "extraordinary support" for the program. Some data show in Central Florida that 55.3 percent of qualified students in 2009-10 were turned away from bachelor of nursing programs because of limited capacity, similar to a state problem. Jeff Feasel, president and CEO of Halifax Health, said earlier this week "there is nothing against the other programs" and "many of our nurses who have four-year degrees graduated from those programs." But he said some nurses with associate degrees point to "cost issues and a convenience issue" as to why they haven't continued at other area universities. Daytona State's tuition for four years, for example, would be about $14,500 compared with UCF's approximately $24,000, according to Daytona State. Daytona State currently offers a bachelor of applied science in supervision and management; five bachelor of science in education degrees; and a bachelor of science in engineering technology. The board also Thursday approved a new associate of science degree program in interactive media, which would start this fall. Trustees also were updated on the college's decision to cut its swimming program at the end of this semester, when the season ends, because of budgetary constraints and reduced enrollment. A parent of a student on the swim team asked the college to re-evaluate eliminating a program that has gained national recognition. She said staff's "apparent problem with financing the program" was never brought to swimmers or the community. But chairman Lewis said stopping the program is "not a decision that is up for debate" by the board. He said it's "the decision of this president (Carol Eaton) to operate this college in the most effective and efficient way she can." Vitale said the college needed to look for cuts in athletics because of drops in overall enrollment at the college. Athletics is supported by student activity fees. He said staff also looked at the fact that only 22 community and state colleges nationally offer swimming programs out of 1,200 colleges.